KRISTINA REIKO : SEPHORA PLAY REVIEW | Beauty Box Subscription

I recently got a subscription to Sephora Play (Sephora's monthly beauty box). For $10 a month you get a box with a mini bag, 5 samples (plus a fragrance sample) sent to you. All samples are from brands that Sephora carries and are deluxe/full sizes. It's a similar concept to other beauty box subscriptions (like IPSY, Boxycharm, BirchBox, etc). The only other beauty box subscription that I have is IPSY, and I've had IPSY for over 3 years.

At first Sephora Play was only available in certain areas. Now I think it's available throughout most of the US. To sign up you have to join a waitlist and they will email you when a spot opens up. When I was reading information online I saw that it said Sephora takes people off the waitlist depending on when spots open up in your area. So not necessarily in the order that you're put onto the list but when they have openings in your region. I was on the waitlist for about 2 weeks before getting an email that a spot was open and the email said you had to hurry because I think they only give you a certain amount of time to "claim" your spot.

So far I've gotten two boxes and I like the products in the Sephora box more then the ones I get in my IPSY. I feel like the Sephora box is better because you get samples from any of the brands they carry in their store (which is a lot). IPSY only works with certain brands and I feel like I kept getting products from the same brands over and over (like NYX, Formula X, Starlooks, Elizabeth Mott, Mellow, TreStiQue). At first trying out a brand I've never heard of is fine but when I keep getting the same brand over and over again after I've given a review that I don't like it gets annoying. That's something IPSY needs to fix.

One thing that I do like about IPSY is that you can leave reviews and earn points to redeem for extra products. Sephora Play doesn't have this feature and I'm hoping they add it in the future. However, something similar that Sephora Play offers is that they give you a card inside each box that can be redeemed with any purchase inside a Sephora store for 50 extra bonus points. I bought a $3 nose strip and was able to redeem my card. I like that they do this because then it helps you get samples faster. For example if you redeem two cards you'll have 100 points and they have a lot of 100 point samples to choose from either in store or with an online purchase. And unlike IPSY, the Sephora points in your account won't expire.

All the boxes for Sephora Play are pretty similar (sometimes they'll do two different boxes depending on your skin type) but they aren't as customized as the IPSY ones. However I don't mind because I feel like IPSY only ever gives me 2-3 products I really like.

I like that Sephora Play gives a lot of high-end deluxe samples, so far all are from brands that I recognize. IPSY tends to give like one high-end sample from a brand I recognize and the rest are either drug store samples or brands I've never heard of.

Here's a list of items I've gotten in my past two Sephora Play Boxes: